Vitamin A Deficiency among School Going Adolescents in Rural Areas of Bareilly.

Objective: 1. To find out the prevalence of Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) on the basis of presence of bitot’s spot and conjunctival xerosis among rural school going adolescents of District Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India. 2. To identify the associated factors and to suggest the suitable measures to prevent VAD among them. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Field practices areas Department of Community Medicine RMC&H Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh India, between Jan 2012 to Dec 2012. Participants: 900 school going adolescents. Sampling: Multistage sampling method. A structured schedule was used to collect the information. Statistical Analysis: Data were analyzed with SPSS 17. Significant difference was determined using Chi- square test. Results: The overall prevalence of VAD was found to be 42.22%. It was higher in 15-19 years of age group adolescents (48.77%) as compare to 10-14 years (41.6%). The prevalence of VAD was slightly higher among boys (p value=0.666). Out of total 398 (42.22%) VAD adolescents 300 adolescents were from socioeconomic class V. Conclusion: Nutrition education regarding regular intake of foods rich in vitamin A rich is needed to prevent the deficiency.

Study of antibiotic sensitivity pattern in urinary tract infection at a tertiary hospital.

This study was conducted in a tertiary hospital at Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh between Aug 2009 and July 2010 to check the changing pattern of antibiotic sensitivity among uropathogens causing urinary tract infections (UTI). A total of 170 urine culture sensitivity reports were analyzed. The predominant growth of single bacteria was seen in 143 (84.12%) samples. The most common organisms isolated were Escherichia coli, klebsiella, pseudomonas, and Staphylococcus aureus. (These represented 64.33%, 92; 20.3%, 29; 9.1%, 13 and 6.30%, 9 of isolates respectively). More than 80% of the isolates were sensitive to amikacin and nitrofurantoin, while more than 70% were sensitive to norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin. Very high rate of resistance was seen against cotrimoxazole (81.82%), amoxicillin (77.42%) and amoxi-clav (64.34%). E. coli showed high sensitivity to Amikacin 98.91% (91), Nitrofurantoin 93.48% (86). 75% of E. coli isolates were sensitive to minocycline, showing a good utility of this drug for the treatment of outdoor patients with urinary tract infections.

Prevalence of intestinal parasites among school going children in Bareilly District.

This study was conducted to find out the burden of intestinal parasitic infection among school going children in Bareilly District Uttar Pradesh India. A total of 320 stool samples were collected and screened from 4 schools. The stool sample was examined by direct wet mount examination. The prevalence of intestinal parasite was 22.81%. Ascaris lumbricoides (9.68%), Giardia lamblia (6.25%), Entamoeba histolytica (2.50%) were the commonest parasite isolated. Lack of pure drinking water and lack of proper sanitary disposal, and improper health education is supposed to be the root cause of these parasitic infections. This also advocates the regular and periodic health check up & deworming schedule for the students attending the school.

Determinants of nutritional status of school children - A cross sectional study in the western region of Nepal.

Under-nutrition continues to be a primary cause of ill health and mortality among children in developing countries. Besides poverty, there are other factors that directly or indirectly affect the nutritional status of children. In the present study, an attempt was made to find the prevalence of under-nutrition among school children in 4 – 14 year age group and the role of socio-demographic characteristics of mother on child nutrition. Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in schools of Kaski district of Western Nepal from January 2007 to June 2007. A total of 786 students were randomly selected from six schools in the study area and nutritional status of the children was assessed by anthropometric measurements. Results: Among 786 students, 26% of the students were found to be undernourished and 13% stunted, 12% wasted and only 1% both stunted and wasted. The present study shows highly significant association (p<0.005) of maternal factors like literacy, occupation, diet knowledge and monthly per-capita income respectively with child nutrition. Conclusion: Maternal education status, socio-economic status, occupation and dietary knowledge are important determinants of nutritional status of school children.

Evaluation of primary immunization coverage in an urban area of Bareilly city using cluster sampling technique.

Infectious diseases are major cause of morbidity and mortality in children. One of the most cost effective and easy methods for the child survival is immunization. Objective of present study was to find out the various reasons for partial or non immunization of child and to assess the factors associated with immunization. The present cross sectional study was carried out in urban slums of Bareilly city from April 2010 to Aug. 2010 using 30 by 7 cluster sampling technique. A total of seven children aged 12-23 months were interviewed from each cluster on pre tested, predesigned schedule, thus giving us the sample size of 210.Chi square test was applied for statistical analysis. Two third children (61.9%) were found to be fully immunized. Immunization coverage was high for BCG (92.86%) and lowest for measles (62.38%). Most common reason (50%) for partial and non immunization of children was found to be ignorance on the part of parents. Religion, education of both mother and father was found to be significantly associated with immunization status. The need of the hour is to make routine immunization a “felt need” of the community. Increasing the knowledge and understanding of the caretakers of the young children about the essentiality and benefits of routine immunization would be a strong step forward in achieving the goals.

Risk factors for low birth weight (LBW) babies and its medico-legal significance.

Birth weight is the most important factor that affects infant and child mortality. This one year study was conducted in a cohort of pregnant women to study the proportion of low birth weight babies and to find out the socio-economic and maternal risk factors affecting the birth weight of newborns and its medico-legal significance. Information regarding socio-economic status, obstetric history and present pregnancy was collected. These women were followed up till their delivery and birth weight was recorded with 24 hours of delivery. Birth weight was available for 256 births. The overall prevalence of low birth weight was 34.37%. Overall mean birth weight was found to be 2.64±0.444 with 95% confidence interval of 2.59-2.69. Primigravida mothers showed the highest prevalence of low birth weight (30.86%, p< 0.001). The main factors which were significantly associated with LBW were maternal education, stature, age at delivery; short inter pregnancy interval, inadequate antenatal care, and per capita income of family.

Infant feeding practices of mothers in an urban area in Nepal.

BACKGROUND: Child health in developing countries including Nepal is a matter of serious concern as the prevalence of malnutrition among children continues to be high with 48.6% of children under five in Nepal being underweight. Since infant feeding practices adopted by mothers play a major role in influencing health of these children, there is a need to study the infant feeding practices prevalent in different areas in order to have pragmatic approaches to solve this problem. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted among mothers who attended the immunization clinics of 18 wards of Pokhara municipality area. They were interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire on various aspects of infant feeding. RESULT: A total of 168 mothers were interviewed and prevalence of breastfeeding was 99.4% (167). Only 43.5% of the mothers initiated breastfeeding within one hour of birth and 60.5% were practicing exclusive breastfeeding at 5 months. Almost 40% of the mothers started complementary feeding before the recommended age of 6 months and 22.5 % delayed introduction of complementary feeding beyond the recommended age. CONCLUSION: Breast feeding practices adopted by mothers of Pokhara urban area are still lacking in terms of late initiation of and early starting of complementary feeding. There is a need to educate the mothers regarding proper infant feeding practices.